# What was the most anachronistic thing you've seen in a fictional work that wasn't intentional or an accident? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956 "2021-11-08T03:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/1 "2021-11-08T03:28:06Z")
Barring stuff like Blazing Saddles where all the anachronisms are a joke, or something that was unavoidably left in by mistake like seeing airplane contrails in a work set in the Middle Ages, or something where that was part of the style/setting like people with modern clothing showing up in the 1950’s, what are some of the most anachronistic things you’ve seen that were included in a movie due to either laziness or ignorance on behalf of the filmmakers? I’m probably already breaking my own rule with this one but it’s the best example I can think of, Robin Hood (2010) with Russel Crowe. Sure you can claim it’s “stylistic” but I don’t think so, I legitimately think the people who made the movie thought every single beach invasion scene even in the middle ages looked like D-Day. Complete with landing craft that opened from the front which is anachronistic by about 850 years. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/2 "2021-11-08T04:19:50Z")
I don’t know if it’s an anachronism, but _Patton_ and _Battle of the Bulge_ both used post-war American M47 and M48 tanks to portray both American M4 Sherman tanks and German tanks. They don’t even remotely look like the proper tanks; they could have done better with bulldozers and plywood. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/3 "2021-11-08T05:29:50Z")
Using a German Shepherd for The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. GSD’s didn’t exist in post-Civil War America. There are a lot of movies like _Bridge of Spies_ that are full of little anachronisms. They don’t affect the story, mostly they’re things like the wrong year car or wrong year typewriter, that sort of thing, but they bug me because they are so _easy_ to fix. There are a lot of people that can tell the filmmakers at a glance that the prop is wrong. For a movie like BoS that pays the money for cgi to fix things, why can’t they spend a little time and get the right year car? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/4 "2021-11-08T05:56:47Z")
The history-pedants’ guide to The Last Kingdom - episode one [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vCJUDdEirco/maxresdefault.jpg "The history-pedants' guide to The Last Kingdom - episode one") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCJUDdEirco) ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/5 "2021-11-08T06:18:07Z")
The twentieth-century spray bottles seen in several episodes of _Star Trek_ (TOS). > **[Spray bottle](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Spray_bottle)** > > A spray bottle was a container for storing and dispensing liquids in fine droplets. Three spray bottles filled with colored liquids sat on Hikaru Sulu's table in USS Enterprise's botany section in 2266. (TOS: "The Man Trap") Tetra-lubisol was kept in... I completely understand why those were used. Trigger-style sprayers were fairly new in the mid-1960s and looked modern, and it wasn’t worth the effort and expense to build a prop that looked _more_ futuristic but was still recognizable as a spray bottle. Still, it’s amusing to see them now. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/6 "2021-11-08T13:58:50Z")
I was amused in _Victor/Victoria_, they used the phrase “Can you relate to that?”, a phrase that didn’t exist at the time the movie portrayed. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/7 "2021-11-08T14:01:53Z")
Blink and you’ll miss it, but in the 2005 movie _The Squid and the Whale_, there’s a poster featuring WWE wrestler The Hurricane. That gimmick debuted in 2001, but the film took place in 1986. Hulk Hogan would have been more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/8 "2021-11-08T14:11:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > There are a lot of movies like _Bridge of Spies_ that are full of little anachronisms. They don’t affect the story, mostly they’re things like the wrong year car or wrong year typewriter I’m surprised BoS had any anachronistic typewriters, since Tom Hanks is a known collector and semi-expert in typewriters. I haven’t seen the movie, so many he wasn’t in any relevant scenes. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/9 "2021-11-08T14:31:17Z")
There is a wristwatch on an actor in the chariot race in “Ben Hur”. And a digital watch in “Glory”. [https://blog.onlineclock.net/ben-hur-wristwatch/](https://blog.onlineclock.net/ben-hur-wristwatch/) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/10 "2021-11-08T14:42:18Z")
In **The Rifleman** , Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) wears jeans, which is fine. But in one episode a view from behind shows “ **W** ” stitching on his back pocket. The scene was in 1880, but Wrangler didn’t sell jeans with the W stitching until 1940. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/11 "2021-11-08T15:31:30Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Robin Hood (2010) with Russel Crowe. Sure you can claim it’s “stylistic” but I don’t think so, I legitimately think the people who made the movie thought every single beach invasion scene even in the middle ages looked like D-Day. Complete with landing craft that opened from the front which is anachronistic by about 850 years. This is the movie that made all the street fighting in the crusades very reminiscent of modern day urban combat, complete with bow and arrow room clearing and a ‘machine gun’ overlooking a street? I think they were just going with ‘recognizable and cool’. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/12 "2021-11-08T15:52:46Z")
> [@Darth\_Sensitive](#): > > This is the movie that made all the street fighting in the crusades very reminiscent of modern day urban combat, complete with bow and arrow room clearing and a ‘machine gun’ overlooking a street? I think they were just going with ‘recognizable and cool’. No, that one was _Robin Hood_ (2018), with Taron Egerton, the _other_ recentish big budget gritty re-imagining of the Robin Hood legend. That one also had a casino with roulette wheels and craps tables, cops in riot armor with riot shields fighting protestors throwing Molotov cocktails, armored vehicles, and so on. It was very definitely highly stylized, with very deliberate parallels to the modern day. It obviously wasn’t even trying for historical accuracy. _Robin Hood_ (2010) with Russel Crowe, by contrast, _was_ trying to be “realistic”. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/13 "2021-11-08T15:59:37Z")
_Mad Med_ was filled with anachronisms, but the one that sticks out is Don Draper coming up with the slogan for Lucky Strike Cigarettes, “It’s toasted!” Lucky Strike had been using that slogan continuously since WWI – before the Don Draper character was born. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/14 "2021-11-08T15:59:47Z")
Famously, when the Kingdom of the North celebrates their victory over the Night King, there’s a Starbucks cup in front of Danaerys, despite the fact that Starbucks didn’t open their first Winterfell franchise until 6 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/15 "2021-11-08T16:06:11Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > The twentieth-century spray bottles seen in several episodes of _Star Trek_ (TOS). One of my favorite Star Trek stories has to do with salt shakers. The prop crew acquired several futuristic-looking salt shakers to use in the Enterprise cafeteria. Problem was, they didn’t look at all like salt shakers and would not be recognizable as such to the audience. So they went down to the studio commissary and grabbed some 1960s diner style salt shakers and used those. The exotic shakers they had bought? They became some of Dr. McCoy’s medical instruments. > **[TV Legends Revealed | Were McCoy's Star Trek Instruments Salt Shakers?](https://www.cbr.com/tv-legends-revealed-were-mccoys-star-trek-instruments-salt-shakers/)** > > This week, Brian Cronin beams aboard to determine whether Dr. McCoy's medical instruments on the original Star Trek were really just fancy salt shakers. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/16 "2021-11-08T16:07:53Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > _Robin Hood_ (2010) with Russel Crowe, by contrast, _was_ trying to be “realistic”. - Didn’t try very hard. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/17 "2021-11-08T16:13:10Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > _Robin Hood_ (2010) with Russel Crowe, by contrast, _was_ trying to be “realistic”. They weren’t trying very hard. (ETA: ninja’d) Telescope! Gunpowder! Amphibious landing! 😄 [![](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaduh.jpg) ](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaduh.jpg) And that’s only the start of a long list of glaring anachronisms. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/18 "2021-11-08T16:15:43Z")
Y’all are overlooking the most obvious anachronisms of all - nice teeth. Sure, restoration dentistry has been around for a long time, but for most of history it was expensive, time-consuming and painful, and it was a lot more likely that your average person in ye olde times had missing, crooked, broken, and yellow teeth. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/19 "2021-11-08T16:22:48Z")
I don’t see how the Star Trek examples belong here. Just because they were using old salt shaker and spray bottle designs does NOT make them anachronisms. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/20 "2021-11-08T16:34:30Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Y’all are overlooking the most obvious anachronisms of all - nice teeth. On the other hand, they had no sugar, no sodas, no processed food. Archaeology shows that people in earlier times had far better teeth than you might think. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956.md?page=2)